Ferrari’s Massa Finishes Second To Win The
Belgian Grand Prix!

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa finished the 2008
Belgian Grand Prix, held at the legendary Spa race track at
the weekend (7 September 2008) in second place, but ended up
winning the race after Lewis Hamilton, who took the
chequered flag, was penalized 25 seconds for passing Kimi
Raikkonen by cutting the bus stop chicane.

“This was a
very strange race, with the start and finish taking place in
rather difficult conditions,” said Massa at the finish.
“After the start I thought Eau Rouge might be wetter and
so I was a bit cautious. Kimi attacked and managed to get
by. From then on I realized it would be hard to pass the two
guys ahead of me, even if the lap times were quite similar.
I tried to manage the situation, especially towards the end.
When it started to rain, I had a pretty good margin over my
closest pursuers and I preferred not to take any risks,
especially given what was going on in front of me. Today the
car wasn't perfectly balanced. On Saturday morning, we had
slightly reduced the aerodynamic downforce, as you usually
do for the race here, but today's track conditions
definitely did not suit this choice. The hard tyres? They
were definitely slower than the soft ones and lacked grip,
which made the car a bit inconsistent in terms of
balance.”

He may have inadvertently helped his team mate
to a delayed victory, but Belgium is an event for Raikkonen
to otherwise forget after he crashed near the end of the
race, after the Lewis Hamilton incident.

“I came here to
win and I came close,” he explained. “In the final laps
the track conditions were very critical and unfortunately, I
ran wide and when I tried to get back on track, I spun and
ended up in the wall. It was a shame because today the car
was working really well. I got a good start and managed to
pass Felipe on the straight and then overtook Hamilton when
he spun at the start of the second lap. On the soft tyres, I
could run at a good pace, while the final set, the harder
ones, was not quite there - definitely not as good in
performance terms as those I'd used in the past couple of
days - and the balance of the car was not as good as
earlier. The arrival of the rain definitely did not help. In
these conditions, if you are in front you have to be more
cautious as you don't know how much grip you'll find in each
braking area. That's how Hamilton managed to close on me and
then happened what you all saw. It's the second race in a
row that I've failed to score points. Clearly the
championship situation is what it is, but I'm not the sort
to give up that easily."

Kimi Raikkonen had made a
brilliant start in his F2008 from fourth on the grid, to
swallow up Kovalainen, his team-mate Massa and pole man
Hamilton by lap 2 From then on, the man who has won the last
three races here controlled the race, only losing the lead
during the two pit stop runs.

However, with a couple of
laps remaining, rain threw the race into confusion and in a
controversial move, Hamilton cut the chicane to go into the
lead. Shortly after that, trying to regain the lead, the
Ferrari man spun and ended his race in the barrier. Hamilton
still heads the Drivers' classification but is now only two
points ahead of Felipe. Ferrari still heads the
Constructors' championship, as the series heads to Monza
next weekend for the Italian Grand Prix.

It had rained on
and off throughout the morning and the majority of cars went
out onto the grid on rain tyres, but with the clouds moving
off, the switch to dry weather rubber began before the
start, with Felipa Massa in second place alongside pole
sitter, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen in the other F2008
lining up behind his team-mate, with Heikki Kovalainen in
the second McLaren-Mercedes as his neighbour. All runners
were on the softer of the two types of tyre, apart from
Piquet's Renault that was fitted with the harder ones.

Hamilton got a good start from pole, but Felipe was a bit
slow away, allowing Kimi, who had got the better of
Kovalainen, to pass him on the straight, with Bourdais
briefly fourth before being passed Alonso. Kimi was flying
and took the lead, while Kovalainen spun at La Source
hairpin.

After five of the 44 laps had been completed,
Kimi led Hamilton by 1.1 seconds with Felipe 3.5 behind the
Englishman. Fourth was Alonso, followed by Bourdais, Webber,
Kubica, Kovalainen, Piquet and Heidfeld completing the top
ten. Eleventh was Vettel, followed by Glock, Rosberg,
Trulli, Barrichello, Sutil, Coulthard, Button and Nakajima.
Fisichella was last. On lap 9, Kovalainen and Vettel both
moved up a place to seventh and tenth respectively.

Out
in front, Hamilton was 1.2 behind Kimi and Massa was 5.5
behind in third. Kovalainen's charge up the order after his
spin got a set back when he tried to go down the inside of
Webber, spinning the Australian around. The Finn was given a
drive-through penalty for causing the accident. Hamilton was
the first to pit, stopping for 6.8 seconds on lap 11 and
Kimi came in next time round, for a 7.1 stop. Felipe came in
on lap 13 (7.6 seconds.) Bourdais pitted from second place
on lap 15, coming out just ahead of Kubica who had also come
in on the same lap. Vettel was the last of the leading bunch
to refuel on lap 17, so that one lap later the order was
now, Kimi, 5.7 ahead of Hamilton, Felipe in third at a
distance of 9.5 from his team-mate, followed by Alonso,
Bourdais, Kubica, Vettel and Heidfeld in the last of the
points scoring postions, eighth. Kimi then put in a fastest
race lap to extend his advantage to 6.1s.

The two leaders
made their final pit stops together on lap 25, the McLaren
man's marginally shorter than the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
driver, but Kimi was still ahead, although Felipe was the
temporary race leader. Alonso brought his Renault in from
fourth place on lap 27 and Felipe came in next time round,
stopping for 7.9. The meant the Kimi was back at the head of
the field, but his lead over Hamilton had been reduced to
2.4 and then 1.9 on lap 29, with Felipe 4.1 further back in
third, all three of them now doing the obligatory race stint
on the harder Bridgestone tyre. Bourdais pitted from fourth
on lap 32, while the gaps between the top three barely
changed as the race came down to its final ten laps. Kubica
came in on lap 33 as did Vettel, the German overtaking the
Pole, by beating him out of pit lane.

So with ten laps to
go the order was Kimi still leading, with a 2.2 advantage
over Hamilton, while Felipe trailed by 3.3. Alonso was
fourth and with Bourdais and Vettel fifth and sixth
respectively in the Toro Rosso cars, it meant Ferrari had
four engines in the top six.

With 6 laps remaining a few
drops of rain began to fall, but not enough to require rain
tyres and one lap later the gaps at the front were 0.9
between Kimi and Hamilton, with Felipe 6 behind, but
comfortably 33.5 ahead of fourth placed Alonso.

But with
two laps to go, Hamilton closed right up to Kimi and got
past him but only by cutting across the chicane. Kimi was in
front again going past the pits but again Hamilton got
ahead. Further down the road, Rosberg was recovering from a
spin, Hamilton braked very heavily and Kimi nearly got the
upper hand again, but moments later, the Finn spun off and
his race ended in the barriers. He was classified
eighteenth.

The McLaren man was first past the flag,
followed by Felipe and the BMW of Nick Heidfeld, who had
stopped to change onto intermediate rain tyres. Also
adopting this tactic was Alonso and it helped the Renault
man to move up to fourth, ahead of Vettel and Kubica who
both managed to get ahead of Bourdais, who suffered the most
of this group in the difficult conditions. The remaining
point went to Timo Glock until he was penalised for
overtaking under yellow flags, handing the point to Mark
Webber. Then Hamilton was penalised by the Stewards which
handed the victory to Felipe.

"I have often said that the
race is not over until the official results are published
and that was the case today,” said Ferrari Team Director,
Stefano Domenicali. “As usual, Ferrari will not comment on
the Stewards' decision. After the race, we were called to
the Stewards and we explained our position. We are very
disappointed for Kimi, who had driven a great race and
deserved the win, especially at this rather difficult time
This result is obviously very important for our Championship
hopes: now we must maintain maximum concentration and
prepare as well as possible for the forthcoming races,
starting at Monza where we will be racing in front of our
home fans. We will also need their support at such a
delicate point in the season."

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